First Allergy Blog Post

Welcome to my site - I am glad you found me! I thought I would start with a little background on our allergies. About 2 1/2 years ago my middle son, Ryan was diagnosed with a peanut allergy. He was almost 2 and got a hold of my peanut better toast. I did not panic as we never suspected we would have kids with food allergies. If fact he had been fed a peanut butter sandwich by my brother while I was in the hospital having my 3rd child, and there had been no reaction. I was a bit surprised as his nose began to run and a few hives developed. It was not serious - when we got to the pediatrician Benadryl and steroids did the trick. Ok - a peanut allergy is kind of a bummer, but not the end of the world - we can deal with this.

About a month later my infant began to develop exema - the pediatrician was pretty sure it could be food allergies. Now - hind sight is always 20/20, for the life of me I do not know why I did not experiment with an elimination diet while nursing. I must have been in a fog from the sleep deprivation. But I could kick myself now! All the signs were there. Like the fact that he would only sleep in his car seat, in our bathroom, and with the fan on. He must have had such a tummy ache! I never could have imaging what was in store for us.

At 6 months we took him for allergy tests. Collin is allergic to wheat, nuts, eggs, sesame, pea and banana. Although we did not discover the pea and banana until he began to eat table food. At about that time I weaned him from nursing he did fine on regular formula and his skin cleared up. I will say one thing, that with all his allergies I am grateful that milk is not on the list. Then by 8 months he finally slept through the night! I was in denial about how this would really affect us. Especially since he was eating baby food and it was pretty easy to avoid his allergens. It was not until he got older that the fact that he could not eat a Cheerio or Goldfish really hit me. I did not know anyone else with similar allergies and was really unsure where to turn. Eventually I found a safe chicken nugget, bread to make grilled cheese and a few safe snacks. It was enough to get by.

Now he is 2 ½ and I feel like I need to step it up a bit, so here I am. I hope to share new information and ideas as I find them. Perhaps I can get some information and ideas from some of you. Thanks for taking them time to read about me and please check back as this blog grows!